There is no shortage of make money online business ideas and products being pitched out there. Some are good, most are not. When it comes to making extra money or even a full-time income working from home, you need to tread lightly.

But how do I know what is â€œgood?â€

Well, I can divide internet hopefuls into four categories…

You are an Idiot. â€“ This category includes any email from a â€œlong-lostâ€ relative who left you 10 million dollars, a â€œprinceâ€ that needs to get his money out of the country and away from some horrible government, and aÂ â€œsure thingâ€ diamond mine that just needs $4,000 in start-up capital.

Really Grandma? This stuff is at the top of the scam level. Falling for this means you probably should not have a computerâ€¦or a televisionâ€¦or a toaster.

You are nice, but naive. â€“ This category is anything in the â€œmake money surfing the net in your sleepâ€ category. Anything that leads you to believe there will just be a truckload of free stuff coming to your house if you just review the product. Where will you keep all those free plasma televisions?

Did you just move from Kansas Dorothy? No one is going to send you â€œfreeâ€ stuff. You donâ€™t make money surfing the net and filing out surveys. That is what monkeys in some distant land can do for free.

You are educated, but not enough â€“ This category includes anything that shows how to make money â€œautomaticallyâ€ on the Internet. â€œYep, just set this CD on top of your computer (you donâ€™t even need to install the program!) and it will automatically build you 5,000 money-making websites. Oh, and I can prove it because here are some screen shots of me making $238,902.23 per day (forget the fact that I own Photoshop and can make it look like whatever I want).â€

If you are in this category you watched to many cartoons followed by infomercials. You need to get out more. Some guy has turned the Internet into his own personal ATM and all he wants to do is share it with you? In the old days they would have sold you a bridge.

You are cautiously optimistic. â€“ This is actually where the real money is. You know will have to learn some things and you will probably spend a few bucks to learn the right way. But you also understand that no real business can be built with just a few mouse clicks.

If you need money by this weekend, you probably never made it to this category and already lost your money to Prince Abahula or are still waiting for your â€œturn-keyâ€ websites to kick in. If you made it this far and didnâ€™t fall for the other crap, than you are ready to move forwardâ€¦

So, how can you tell good online business ideas from bad ones?

1. Check around. Not everything you read on the Internet is true (gasp), but collectively enough of the same comments over and over again will start to gain some traction. Try to find comments and feedback NOT on the site that is selling you something. Also, try and find comments that are not on a side labeled â€œreviewâ€ as these sites are often just veiled affiliate sites.

They often say things like â€œIs ABC Widgets a SCAM?â€ â€“ Guess what, when your done reading they send you directly to ABC Widgets or another product they like â€“ but oftentimes, you didnâ€™t really get a real â€œreviewâ€ of the product.

2. What is your out? Make sure you always have a money back guarantee â€“ and donâ€™t be afraid to ask for your money back if the product was not as advertised*. A 30-60 day time frame to review a product is fairly standard. Anything less and I would consider learning from someone else.

*As a side note, do not be one of those people that keep ordering and refunding even though they know the product was good. That is just lame.

3. Keep it Real. If you keep the moneymaking realistic and also realize that some time will need to be put in to your new venture, you are probably on the right track to building a real online business.

I donâ€™t think many people will deny the Google friendly power of a WordPress fueled website. Not to mention the fact that it is easy to add new posts and pages.

Skip the â€œfreeâ€ WordPress themes and skip hiring the kid down the street wearing a helmet. Letâ€™s not create something that looks like everyone else right out of the gate if we donâ€™t have to.

Get your own hosting account. Why? Because if you go the free route with WordPress, you will be limited from using some bells and whistles I know you are going to want down the road. Hosting is only around $10 a month â€“ so it wonâ€™t cut into your Diet Pepsi budget.

As for choosing a theme, I highly recommend you start with StudioPress. They have some great themes and the support board is off the charts helpful! It is like having your own programmers on standby to help you out. Most of your answers will already be on the board somewhere â€“ if not, you can always add your own post.

Special Note: Grab the â€œFullâ€ version that gets you all themes. You can thank me later.

Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin

Want your friends to think you are an SEO ninja? Ditch the old All-in-One SEO and grab this new WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast.

You may already know about H1â€™s and H2â€™s, Keyword density, blah, blah, blah. I mean really. Who has the time?!

Well, you better have the time (or pay someone to do it for you). Why spend all that effort getting a site together only to have it win at a game of hide and seek?

Frankly, I hate doing the SEO stuff (my wife is the SEO Diva) but with the Yoast [insert wicked smart guy here] Plugin I can, easily, get most of the way there.

I love that it tells me specifically what I am missing (and what to do about it).

Takes a bit to set up, but well worth it! (Oh and did I mention it is a Free plugin?)

Internet Marketing Graphics Toolkit

I would love to have a full time graphics designer on hand to make cool headlines and images at my beck and call â€“ oh yea, and I donâ€™t want to pay them.

As much as I love playing around in Photoshop, it just doesnâ€™t pay for exotic vacations. I would have given my eyeteeth to find this Marketing Graphics Toolkit sooner.

Max Rylski created a toolkit full of ready-to-use headlines, graphics, you name it. And here is the kickerâ€¦he sold it for under $10.00.

We are talking PSD, JPG, and PNG filesÂ â€“ the whole bit! This package has literally saved me hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. I also signed up for his monthly program, but you donâ€™t have to. Seriously, just grab the starter package!

Hey, you might be surprised how many people share your stuffÂ (and I am not talking about your late night karaoke fest captured on an iPhone). Just give your visitors an easy way to pass the message on to friends and loved ones.

Sexy Bookmarks is the easier of the two to use, but lately, I tend to lean towards Sharebar (as long as it fits into the theme).

Sharebar has some nice counter features as well as allows for custom coding (like adding Google+ for example).

Whichever you use, donâ€™t go overboard. Pick a few hot share techniques and move on (you donâ€™t need to list them all). I tend to stick with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Digg, and StumbleUpon. But hey, you decide what is best for you.

Kajabi

Kajabi is the 800-pound gorilla the big boys use for product launches and membership sites. But here is what most people donâ€™t knowâ€¦

You donâ€™t have to be selling a $2000 program to make Kajabi feasible. I have a couple programs under $100 and it works out great!

With a solid help desk and new features coming online all the time, Kajabi has become a serious option for Internet Marketers.

It has great looking sales funnels, ability to capture names/leads, and a kick ass social interaction membership section for your buyers.

I have also seen people pitching affiliate type stuff or even providing a free membership site â€“ so use your imagination.

If you want more tips on using this Internet marketing program check out my Kajabi Reviews site.Â As a user and original beta tester Iâ€™ll admit to being a bit biased but I also provide suggestions for lower budget Kajabi alternatives.

Deposit Photos

Quit snagging photos off the Internet hoping you donâ€™t get caught. It is not fair to the people that are supposed to be getting paid for them.

Sure there are some other sources out there, but many of them are getting pretty pricey. Bring back the old days when we could just buy a disk full of photos and use them all we want!

Easy Video Player (EVP)

Stop limiting your video playing abilities because you only know how to embed YouTube.

Why? The YouTube technique (although an easy and fun way to share) eventually takes traffic off your site.

Easy Video Player is wellâ€¦easy. Not only does it seamlessly integrate with your Amazon S3 account (which only costs pennies), it has a nifty plugin for WordPress.

Once active, you have a TON of cool features that go well beyond choosing the color of your player. Embed html or links at the end of the video to take someone to your sales page. Add watermarks or even track how well the video performs for conversions.

Having wrestled with the pros and cons of numerous so-called â€œbolt-onâ€ video players, I think EVP is the best by far for making money online.

Email Marketing Service

Look, if you are getting traffic then you HAVE to start capturing some names. Think of it as college and going home from the bar without phone numbers (loser)!

There are many out there and it all depends upon what you want to do. For simplicity, Aweber is a solid choice. IContact and Infustionsoft are also some good alternatives.

MailChimp has a free version, but I hate the name.Â Plus youâ€™ll need to upgrade to a paid plan if you want auto-responders (at least at the time of this writing) so you might as well spring for Aweber or one of the others.

Each of them will enable you to run double opt-in lists. â€“ Yes, you should be doing double opt-in 99% of the time (especially if you donâ€™t want to get blacklisted).

The fact of the matter is that people are going to click the SPAM button even though they double opted-in (the bastards)! With double opt-in, you are protected because there is proof.

Whomever you use, check out things like split testing subject lines, sending to non-opens, and try using a variety of widgets. [Hint: The key to making money online is having a list and building a relationship with people].

What Else?

Yea, I know thereâ€™s a host of other must have Internet Marketing Tools â€“ but I had to cut this list to my top eight.

Think something else should be on the list when it comes to building a real online business and making money online? Have an example of a great site using these techniques you think we should look at?

Ok, I will be the first to admit, I get distraâ€¦.ok, I am back (see what I mean?). Anyway, much like a lot of people who do Internet Marketing or try to make money online, sometimes I start getting distracted by the small stuff.

The problem is much of that stuff will not really make me more money. I might see an â€œolderâ€ banner on one of my sites and think, â€œhey, I can improve that!â€ â€“ An hour later I have a much better looking banner, but did it really get me more income?

Have you ever worked your butt off for an entire day and not have anything, monetarily, to show for it?

My guess is you are like me and have a focus issue.

You mean well. You are a hard worker. You are just not focusing on the right stuff! Yes, talking to you chase-every-shiny-object-guy (or girl)!

So, here is the secret of how I stay focused throughout the day.

I have three large sheets of paper on the wall. You know, the kind you can get at Office Depot or Staples; they are pretty much large Post-it notes.

Here is the breakdown of what goes on each oneâ€¦

Sheet One: ONLY items that will directly effect getting income.

This can be anything from sending out an email (selling a product, affiliate link, or launching a program) to creating a website that has some sort of immediate income associated with it.

Sheet Two: Items that will, at some point in the near future, make money online.

This is where I like to have sites that are â€œmarinating.â€ They will be used at some point in the near future but not currently full time. They need a theme, content, and to begin building a list (but not yet selling anything).

This is where some a/b testing might go (although some people would argue it needs to be on sheet one â€“ and that is fair assuming the project is already up and making some money).

Sheet Three: The kitchen sink.

This is where I have a million ideas that need a lot of work. Frankly, my banner example should be in here.

For existing items I can ask myself, â€œIs it good enough?â€ â€“ if yes, it stays on sheet three with no chance of parole â€“ there are just more important things to work on.

So how does the day go?

Look at Sheet One. Is everything checked off as â€œdone?â€ If not, you donâ€™t get to leave that sheet.

Donâ€™t start your day on Sheet Three or Sheet Two â€“ Those things donâ€™t make money online â€“ at least not right now.

Yes, there is always an exceptionâ€¦

Exception: Hey, I believe in taking a break and that you can only spend so many hours â€œworking.â€ I hope you love what you are doing. If not, you should probably be doing something else. So, on â€œweekendsâ€ or a â€œlunch breakâ€ play with the items on Sheet Three â€“ they are your future â€“ just donâ€™t live you entire work career in the future â€“ you will never make it without getting real stuff done today!

Find an empty wall somewhere (visible from where you sit) and try it out. You may be amazed how three sheets of paper and a little awareness to your workflow might just bring you to the next level!

[I originally did this as a guest post, with video, for a fellow Internet Marketer named Joey Kissimmee. Thought it was worth sharing here – enjoy and feel free to ask questions or leave comments]

Let me ask again…Do you really want to make money online?

I hate asking this question because the answer is always the same. However, there is a big difference between answers and actions.

Ask anyone if they want to make extra money and the answer will always be â€œyes.â€ (Surprise!)

Ask someone what they are willing to give up to make more money and you will usually get the same look that dogs give you when they cock their head sideways trying to figure something out.

People just donâ€™t want to sacrifice time or money and you have to give up one (or both) to succeed in making money online.

Think you want to make extra money and “work from home?” Let me save you some timeâ€¦

First off, if you are not willing to spend time learning something new, you will most likely never make more money. Probably sucks to hear it huh? So donâ€™t bother answering, â€œyesâ€ to the question that you want to make more money â€“ you donâ€™t if you are not willing to sacrifice.

Really. Save yourself the endless aggravation and stress of â€œwantingâ€ it. Why have the stress if you are never really going to do something about it?

Even filling out a lottery ticket requires some time and, sadly, that is the extent of some peoples attempt to better themselves financially.

If you are not willing to read all you can about a new topic that may help you financially, then move on and just get use to saying, â€œno, I really donâ€™t want to make any more moneyâ€¦ever.â€ It may sound odd at first, but I suspect you might get use to it.

Do you have to spend money to make money online?

Look, there are a lot of great products out there that can cut your money-making curve in half and save you a ton of time. And, although there is a lot of free information out there, you are probably going to have to spend a few bucks (but not break the bank or miss a car payment).

On the other side of the coin, great programs are buried among millions of idiots that are peddling a bunch of rehashed crap. Your job? Separate the good from the bad. The old, â€œif it sounds too good to be true, it probably isâ€ is not a bad place to start.

That is not to suggest that there are not some great ways to make money out there. But you are going to have to work â€“ so donâ€™t fall for any â€œmake money in your sleepâ€ stuff. There are no shortcuts.

If you are not willing to ever take action, just save yourself some time. If you are not willing to put up some money, some time, or both. Just move on and donâ€™t stress out about making more moneyâ€¦you wonâ€™t.

If you are scanning the Internet in search of making money online ideas, you will no doubt find more opportunities than Elvis impersonators in Vegas.

And, like Elvis, we can argue for days of the existence of real opportunities. You know, the ones that actually have money coming IN to your back account as opposed to you lighting up PayPal by purchasing a non-stop wave of shiny objects guaranteed to make you money while you sleep.

You may be tempted to quit everything and jump all in. I respect that, but letâ€™s get you set up correctly before starting your own business.

Quit your day job to start your online empire? – Look, I am thrilled that you saw The Social Network and were amazed at Mark Zuckerbergâ€™s success but here is the deal. He was lucky, smart, and willing to steal part of someone elseâ€™s idea. You are not (or at least not all three!).

Start Part-Time. I canâ€™t emphasize this enough. You donâ€™t want full-time income pressure to make money online when you have not even got off the ground yet and learned the rules. Plan on plenty of nights and weekends before you walk into work and deliver that â€œTake this job and shove itâ€ speech you have been rehearsing for the last 10 years.

Be prepared to learn. â€“ When I say be prepared to â€œlearnâ€ I donâ€™t mean prepare to learn which corners to cut. Sure, there are some things you can do to speed up your success, but there are others that you cannot skip. Many of the top Gurus are scrambling to re-build their business because they took too many shortcuts over the years â€“ some of them are not going to be much ahead of you in starting a â€œlegitimateâ€ online business.

Rome wasnâ€™t built in a day â€“ but it may have fell in one. Hey, you are in it for the long haul (at least I hope). Sure if you have the new hot selling Pet Rock than buy some PPC and hope that you sell all your inventory before you run out of advertising dollars. Till then, build something that will last.

Quit your day job? No. Learn what you can from those that are not trying to sell you stuff every five minutes (by the way, we call that â€œglitterâ€).

Now, I am not saying donâ€™t buy anything and I am not saying there is anything wrong with people selling stuff (yes, even I have stuff that I will probably offer you at some point).

But the important part is are you getting valuable free information as well? Is the person passing on info you can use? Do they seem to pass on â€œreal worldâ€ info or are they saying you will â€œmake $3,398.23 a day with just a click of a button?â€

Anyway, keep your day job until you are making enough money online to then go tell your boss to take a hike! Trust me, it will feel much better when that day comes!

It is so easy to finish the day, tired, sit back and enjoy a glass of wine â€“ all the while congratulating yourself on the â€œamountâ€ of work that got done.

It wasnâ€™t until I began evaluating the work completed that I realized that I was falling into the trap of doing busy work and not creating enough meaningful output.

I work from home online and now have four whiteboards in my office. On the first board are projects or tasks that directly impact income. Anything on that board must specifically make extra money. It is the most important board in the room.

The last board has â€œother stuff.â€ These items are, for the most part, busy tasks or future online business ideas. For example, redo a banner, websites I want to start, books to write, etc.

The other two boards are dedicated to projects in progress. Maybe not bringing in income today, but the expectation of a good return is in the near future.

Items get added and deleted off boards almost daily. Most of the week I never get past working on tasks on the first board. That is also the way it should be.

Think of it as a fancy â€œto doâ€ or â€œpriority list.”

For example, I love playing around with website coding and design. Sure I can outsource many of those tasks (and I often do) but I enjoy it. The problem is that it is often not worth my time.

When I am working on something that I feel needs to be tweaked a bit, I have to look at how long it will take me and will it make an [income] difference? If not, I should probably be working on something else.

If you are not using some sort of â€œpriority listâ€ I suggest you start now. Your number one priority should be items that directly affect income. Adding a product, testing a new sales page, writing a sales email, fulfilling customer expectations, building a list, and finding a JV partner.

Everything else should be below that. I mean everything. If you run out of items on your â€œimpact incomeâ€ list â€“ you better find somethingâ€¦fast.

On the wake of multi-thousand dollar home based business product launches people wonder, â€œHow much does it cost to learn how to make money online?â€ Does it really â€œtake money to make money?â€

After poking around the Internet, bookstore, and library, I figure you can learn just about any work from home online business for less than $500.

Really Fred? Anything?

Now, when I say â€œanythingâ€ let me respectfully reign in a couple readers and say that I am excluding Doctors and Astronauts. You wonâ€™t be doing open heart surgery on the space station at that price point but, just about any home based business can be learned for the same price as going to the movies (assuming popcorn now sells for $400).

The challenge is separating good materials from the bad. A little digging around the Internet can help (as well as some reviews on this site).

But firstâ€¦

Before you buy anything, make sure you have looked at all the â€œfree stuffâ€ first. You probably wonâ€™t be able to learn all the ins and outs just reading free information (most people keep the good stuff in reserve for a product sale â€“ which is more than fair). But you will get a nice head start â€“ maybe even decide it isnâ€™t for you before you get out that credit card and try to make money online.

For example [yes this is a bit self serving but serves as a great example]…

There is a niche called the Private Mortgage Industry (some people call it the â€œcash flow industryâ€). I have been involved in it for over 15 years (and still am to this day). It is an industry that enables everyday people to find and refer mortgage notes to investors (and get a nice fee in the process). Although some slimy people out there try to make it sound like you can get rich quick, it really is a business and needs to be treated as such.

I have two main sites for this niche.

NoteInvestor.com â€“ has hundreds of articles about the cash flow note business in general. The site is for Investors, Brokers, and Holders of mortgage notes. All the articles on the site are free.

FindingCashFlowNotesTraining.com â€“ Predominately a training site, but not without free content. There are four â€œpreviewâ€ videos people get over a period of a couple days (once they have registered). Upon completion of the free mini-course, people can then go into a full online training program for less than $100.

If you glance at both those sites you will see that there is a lot of information you can get for free. If you had decided that you wanted to move forward, it would cost less than $100 for the training. We are still well below the $500 limit that I believe you can learn anything.

Taking the Next Step

Whatever type of home based business are looking for, be sure not to cut corners. Find a professional training (not just hype) by people that actually do the business. I prefer live or video trainings vs. a box full of materials. I also look for some way to interact with the trainers so I can ask questions.

You can learn to make extra money from home; you just donâ€™t need to break the bank getting set up.

I really feel there are basically two types of people that try to make money online.

1.Â Â Â Â People that are smart and

2.Â Â Â Â People that areâ€¦wellâ€¦not-so-smart.

The next question is â€œwhich one will be successful?â€ Well, they both have their challenges but it is important to know which one you areâ€¦

First off, the not-so-smart person tends to chase every shiny object out thereâ€¦

â€œWhat? I can make $3.4 million dollars in my sleep if I just resell a crappy $7 PLR book 485,715 times. Why that is only selling less than one book per minute â€“ this going to be easy!â€

Dream on “short bus” rider.

I hate to break the news to you, but here it goes (you might want to put on your helmet for this).

Nobody makes money that way. Except the guy that sold you the $7 PLR in the first place. Go find something that will require you do a bit of work, and you might be on the right track to finding a home-based business that actually has money coming in.

The â€œSmartâ€ people are smiling right now. Well, put down the double macchiato and listen up.

You are just as lost when you fall for the LOOOOOOOONG sales page. Being the intellectual type, you are almost easier to sway. When the sales page has really long copy (I mean just short of Atlas Shrugged kind of copy) you think the opportunity must be real. â€œ

â€œIf it wasnâ€™t a real online money-making opportunity, then how could they possibly write this much. And look, there are screenshots of checks and Clickbank accounts; all from a home-based business!â€

Please Poindexter. You donâ€™t think these guys have Photoshop and can make it look like whatever they want? They canâ€¦and do â€“ just to appease the people that need â€œproof.â€

That said, the other issue the â€œsmartâ€ person runs into is just outright over analysis. At some point you have to pull the trigger already. Save that brain power for making changes later â€“ but donâ€™t let it stop you from never taking action. You will never be 100% ready â€“ get over it.

No matter which category you are in, you both have a positive attribute.

The not-so-smart people are not afraid to jump in early and take risks. The smart people are, well, smart â€“ at least from a business perspective.

Either one can make money online; just make sure you avoid the traps on the path to starting your own business.

If you have been trying to create some sort of home based business, you have no doubt found numerous ways to make money online â€“ or at least promises of making money online.

One such way, people will tell you, is to â€œsimplyâ€ purchase some PLRs.

PLR stands for â€œPrivate Label Right.â€ Typically someone has written some sort of special report or book on a particular niche topic. Some of these report are very good, and some are, well, not so good.

These reports are sold to hundreds of people â€“ so donâ€™t think you are the only one sitting on that exact same content. Someone else had it long before you did.

So, is working with PLRs right for you?

There are three questions you should consider when deciding if PLRs are good for starting your own business online.

1) Do you care about the content?

A lot of these reports are really, really bad. I mean, if they were suppose to be written in English, some of the writers clearly did not have English as a first language (or second for that matter).

Listen up Dorothy; the other concern is that more often than not, the content itself is really bad. Information that can be found anywhere on the Internet for free. No real tips, no real opinion. Just re-hashed info that probably came from another PLR somewhere.

If you care about what you are delivering, you will probably shy away from most PLR content (and congrats for having some sort of conscience).

2) Do you have an audience?

Do you have traffic or a list that will respond to the PLR? Is it the exact same niche? Donâ€™t sell your â€œdog trainingâ€ list on the wonders of working the â€œforexâ€ market.

Part of online marketing is making sure you are selling what people want. Some people think they can just grab a PLR and create this whole new market. Not likely, and certainly not overnight as some people would have you believe.

3) Can you write or RE-write?

Despite all the negatives about PLR there are some ways they can help get started with your online business ideas. Typically with PLR rights you can also RE-WRITE the article, post, or report.

This gives you the ability to put the report in your own voice and style â€“ make it your own. Not only does this enable you to speak more personally with your readers, you also get the benefit of helping your site rank in the Internet Search Engine results (ie: not duplicate content).

Personally, I like the PLR for ideas but prefer to write articles and content myself. Sometimes it takes me longer to re-write than just take a PLR idea and write it in my own words.

It will take some time, but you can find a few (original content) PLR vendors out there.

There is no doubt you can make money online, and in some cases Private Label Rights just might help you cut a few corners. Just donâ€™t make it the major portion of your business model â€“ you will just burn your audience and have wasted your money.

Looking for how to create a solid, consistent income. Check out Building a Bullet Proof Sales Site (before I sell it as a PLR or something)

Sure, 2010 sucked. The economy sucked. The housing market was lousy. And jobs became tougher to find.

You thought 2010 was your year to break out on your own. Create your own business â€“ an online empire that would yield you income and financial freedom.

But then American Idol had a special, you had to find out what happened on the last season of Lost (and blog about it), and, what is that?… Sarah Palin has a reality show?

Frankly, you blew the year with distractions.

It is easy to doâ€¦I meanâ€¦distractions are soâ€¦wellâ€¦ distracting.

It is so much easier to chat about how Obama is some secret plant by the Soviets sent to destroy America or how Starbucks is adding stuff to their coffee to make people want to buy an accompanying muffin.

Hey, those are much better topics because, frankly, who the hell wants to look within for reasons of not accomplishing your goals?

Dare to peek into the looking glass? Then read onâ€¦

Here are the Top 7 reasons 2010 sucked and how you can change all that for 2011.

1.Â Â Â Â Get Real â€“ Quit cutting corners looking for some get-rich-quick program or new money-making shiny object with instant riches. There are plenty of ways to be successful but, guess what, they all will take work. Plan on learning about something in 2011. I mean really doing your homework â€“ not just buy some box of CDâ€™s that will sit by your front door until you sell them on eBay six months later.

2.Â Â Â Â Email Sucks – If someone sends you any email that says, â€œMake $1293.23 in two days,â€ delete itâ€¦.FAST. Stop reading that crap. Those guys make money by selling the concept of making money. Period. That is it. Do you REALLY think some seven-year-old discovered the secrets of Google and made $10 million dollars on Adsense in her sleep? Get Real and just stick to reading emails from your kid (unless that is who is sending them to you).

3.Â Â Â Â Stop doing â€œworkâ€ and start getting results. It is easy to do busy work. Lots of stuff that, at the end of the day, didnâ€™t earn you a dime but feels like you did something. Pretty logoâ€™s, business cards, cute names for your company, color-perfect websites. Before any task, ask yourself, â€œWill this make me money?â€ If you canâ€™t answer a big â€œyes,â€ in the short termâ€¦move on to something that will.

4.Â Â Â Â Set a real deadline already. Quit saying something is â€œin the worksâ€ or it will forever be in the works.Â When will it be done? Set a deadline (and actual date and time) and tell friends to kick you in the ass if you donâ€™t meet it.

5.Â Â Â Â Quit Bitching You Big Babyâ€“ The world owes you nothing. Life Sucksâ€¦get a helmet. Either do something or donâ€™t do something. But donâ€™t make up a million excuses â€œwhyâ€ you couldnâ€™t do something. Some people spend more time making excuses than it would have taken to use that same amount of time to just do the damn thing. Just do it already or quit whining about it.

6.Â Â Â Â Stop Twittering, Facebooking, and playing Farmville. â€“ That huge sucking sound in the background when you fire up Facebook is the sound of your life going down the drain. You are not a real farmer and you are not â€œkeeping in touch with your friendsâ€ – you are maintaining a narcissistic website all about you (and that is ok if you are a Diva with nothing better to do). Donâ€™t make excuses that social media is anything other than that. Want to talk to a friend? Pick up the frigging phone and call them â€“ it probably automatically forwards to their Facebook account anyway.

7.Â Â Â Â Admit that several of these things apply to YOU. I did. It is easy to read this and say, â€œheck yes, those people are idiots!â€ In reality, you are probably one of them. Hell, we all are.

Soâ€¦ the best advice I could give that would be all encompassing and get 2011 back on track to your goalsâ€¦. â€œStop it already.â€

I hope you have a great 2011. If you donâ€™t, it is probably your own fault.